This Career Pivot Playbook features Rodney Daut, a former public school teacher and the writer behind Course Builder’s Corner.

He didn’t set out to build an online business.

He followed something that worked.

A coaching method. A relationship. A simple marketing idea that got real results. From there, things started to open up.

But not all at once.

There were long stretches where nothing seemed to move. Writing that got little response. An email list that barely grew. Work that felt like effort without traction.

Instead of stopping, he adjusted.

Inside, Rodney shares what he changed when things weren’t working, and how a shift in how he set goals gave him a way to move forward, even when the path wasn’t clear.

He also talks about what actually led to growth, and why some of the things people rely on didn’t work for him.

This is not about quick wins.

It’s about building something that lasts.

If you have expertise and want to turn it into something people value, this one is worth your time.

✨About Career Pivot Playbooks

A public archive of modern career blueprints…

Most careers no longer follow a straight line.

People pivot gradually.
They extend their work beyond institutions.
They combine roles, platforms, and income streams.

Career Pivot Playbooks is a weekly series curated by Katharine Gallagher documenting how professionals build resilient, future-ready careers by turning existing skills into income, often combining Substack with consulting, teaching, research, creative work, or business ownership.

The focus isn’t outcomes.
It’s about how careers are shaped in practice.

About Rodney

Most people who transition from teaching to online business talk about escaping. Rodney Daut doesn’t frame it that way. He followed his curiosity — into a coaching method, into a friendship, into a marketing experiment — and the career just kept unfolding from there.

He’s the writer behind Course Builder’s Corner, a Substack for coaches, consultants, and writers who want to turn their expertise into products people actually buy. He’s also the creator of the Atomic Course Blueprint, a framework for building tiny courses that grow your income without overwhelming you or your students.

His work is built around a simple idea: that coaches, consultants, and writers already have what it takes. They just need help packaging it, positioning it, and getting it in front of the right people. That’s what Rodney does — for clients, and increasingly for himself.

You can follow his work here →

Rodney reflects:

“Can you share a bit about your professional background and the path that led you to where you are today?”

What’s my professional background? I was a public school teacher. To help myself make personal changes, I learned a method called the Lefkoe Method that made a difference in my life.

Then I became friends with Morty Lefkoe, who created that coaching process. I noticed that hardly anyone knew about them and their business was struggling. So I did some research and helped him come up with an idea that helped him grow his business. He said, “Hey, look, can I hire you?” and I said, “Yes.” That’s how I got started in online marketing, online writing, and online business building.

The thing I helped them do was say, “You’re teaching a great coaching method, but if you have a niche, it’s easier to promote it.” We came up with the niche of fear of public speaking, and when we started pursuing that niche, he was getting great results with the clients; they ended up with a waiting list of 20 clients. So if you signed up you’d have to wait a couple of months to work with them. Anyhow, that was my first success in marketing, and I was really proud of that.

“What sign, moment, or slow realization told you it was time to diversify, and what did you have to push through to actually act on it?”

I can’t point to a single moment that had me think, “It’s time to diversify,” but maybe a few years after Morty died I decided I wanted to get this business to a place where I could leave it and know it would run well and be successful. I kind of want to go off and do my own thing, so I suppose that was it. It’s not really a sign, but things change, and I’m not the kind of person who wants to do the same thing forever.

Another change during the pandemic was this: we grew our business quite a bit, but it was all on me. I was marketing the courses, developing the courses, and running the courses. We had daily feedback in our courses, so I was working until 10 p.m. whenever a course was running. That wasn’t sustainable, and that was five months of five cohorts a year. Luckily, because those cohorts were so effective, we ended up with students we could certify and train to help with that load. Now they do almost all of the feedback, and I still do the curriculum design and the marketing. That frees me up to do a lot of other things. Tasks for the Lefkoe Institute, but I also have time to grow my own business and still have a life.

“Which skills or experiences from your previous career unexpectedly became an advantage in what you do now?”

I’ll be honest, I don’t think there are any truly unexpected skills involved, because nearly everything I learn in that business is something I can use in my own venture. For example:

• I build products for the Lefkoe Institute; I build products for my own business.

• I write sales copy for the Lefkoe Institute; I write sales copy for my own business.

• I build email campaigns for the Lefkoe Institute; I build email campaigns for my own business.

It’s not really unexpected, but one powerful transferable skill is the ability to coach people, because that is one of the most lucrative things you can do: coaching others and helping them achieve results.

“How did you decide where to build visibility or credibility (Substack or elsewhere), and what role does that platform play in your overall career or income mix?”

It wasn’t really like a decision, or maybe it was. Here’s what happened: I was writing on LinkedIn. I didn’t see myself making a lot of progress there, and I started to think that social media might not pay off for me.

What I decided to do instead was create an e-book with a bunch of other popular creators online who had figured out how to grow their businesses. I called it Profitable Play Books. I interviewed these people, and luckily I knew them because I’d interacted with them online. Some of the popular ones I’d become friends with agreed to participate because they already know me. That openness encouraged others I didn’t know as well to work with me as well.

I ended up finding a lot of them on Substack. When I interviewed them, many said they got a lot of growth from Substack Notes, so I started writing notes. I believed these notes could help grow my subscriber base, but most didn’t.

What ended up happening is that whenever I would have a Substack live with someone, my email list grew.

Although I grew my email list considerably from the free e-book I created, I also gained at least half of that growth from Substack live sessions with different creators. This was pretty awesome.

That’s why my main platform is Substack now, because much of my growth came from meeting people live or doing guest posts on other newsletters.

“Who is your work really for, and what problem do you solve so well that people are willing to pay for it?”

The people who benefit most from my work are coaches, consultants, and writers. Coaches and consultants benefit because they have expertise, love to talk, and are very good at it. They just need to translate that into products they can sell, and that’s what I help them do: figure out what products they can sell, who they can sell them to, and create the campaigns to sell those products.

For writers, they already know how to write. I teach them to use their writing skills to create products that teach people how to do something valuable, something they are already an expert at. The problem they all share is that they have valuable expertise but don’t know the best ways to profitably contribute to others with that expertise. That’s what I help them do.

“What turned out to be harder than you expected when you started… and what was easier than you imagined?”

The hardest thing is to keep going when hardly anyone responds to your work. When you put in effort, it bursts your bubble to spend time and energy on something and see crickets with no response. That’s the hardest thing: how do you get beyond that? How do you reach a point where you’re getting a response?

That was part of what made me write my ebook. I thought, I don’t think I’m going to get my email. This isn’t going to get any bigger. Every time I gained more people on my list, more people would unsubscribe, so it wasn’t really growing. It kept going like that for months, and I told myself, I have to do something.

I think the hardest thing is turning those uncomfortable feelings into productive discomfort that helps you do something. I guess that’s the hardest part.

“How have you found the journey? What advice/strategies and tips would you give to others wanting to grow their audiences?”

The advice I have is simple: set goals. I know it’s not innovative, but I’ve looked at goal research, and goals can be powerful. There are two types of goals, and it’s important to know both because each is useful in different situations.

People don’t set goals mainly because they only know about one type: outcome goals. Almost everyone thinks, “Set a goal like you want to grow your email list by 1,000 people or make a certain amount of money.” A reason people don’t like to set those goals is that they’re not confident they can reach them or they don’t know how to do it. They ask, “What’s the point?”

Whenever you don’t know how to achieve a goal, that’s when you should set a learning goal: to figure out the specific strategies and skills you need to learn. You still follow the other elements of good goal setting, like a time limit and planning. Many people do things without planning. You have a goal and you have a plan, and if that goal is a learning goal, you set a plan to help you win. You have an outcome goal because you think you already know the skills required to achieve that outcome; then you set an outcome goal and you plan to achieve it.

Those are the things I would tell people, and the idea of learning goals is to help more people understand them.

“What nearly made you quit, and what actually kept you going?”

I’ll be honest, I have not considered quitting.

“What advice would you give to someone considering a similar pivot or looking to monetize their skills in a more flexible way?”

If you want to monetize your skills in a more flexible way, setting learning goals is extremely useful. Locke and Latham, who conducted the original goal-setting research, were the ones behind the SMART acronym used to summarize that work.

They later found that if you don’t know how to do something, you should set learning goals. For example, say, “I’m going to learn three strategies to help me do X, Y, or Z.” If you don’t know how your skills can transfer to something else, that’s useful to realize. You might set a goal like, “Let me find five different ways my skills could transfer to another career or to a business I could build,” give yourself a time limit, and pursue it.

Then you might ask, “What strategies could I use to find those ideas?” You could talk to five or ten people, listen to podcasts, read books, or hire a coach. You begin to generate strategies instead of hoping one day the ideas will strike like lightning.

“What other platforms, audiences, or income streams are part of your portfolio career… and how do they work together?”

I’ve tried a lot of things. I spent a lot of time on Twitter and LinkedIn, but right now my main focus is Substack. My income streams come from coaching, ghostwriting, and market strategy I do for clients. For market strategy, I also write copy and help my clients put together their workshops and programs. These activities all work together, centered on creating a quality learning experience for clients and customers. Of course, to create that experience you have to attract people through ethical marketing and ensure that the promises are delivered.

“Looking back, what’s one decision that changed everything… and what’s next for you?”

There are at least two turning points that made a difference for me.

The first was achieving my first major marketing success: courses I promoted for the Lefkoe Institute sold out in a matter of hours. This success fueled the confidence I needed to begin offering my own coaching services, helping others market their programs.

Another big change is when I joined Ship30for30, that got me on the road to building my own email list and then communicating with that list regularly. I had written for 30 days straight, so that means I could keep coming up with more newsletter ideas every week to keep people interested. I learned that people liked the idea of building tiny courses, and that gave me confidence that I had an idea that was worth pursuing.

Links & Resources

Connect with Rodney…

On LinkedIn

On Twitter

Products:

https://rodneydaut.substack.com/p/featured-products

Services:

https://rodneydaut.substack.com/p/services

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🧩Behind the Pivot

Learn how to turn your current skills and experience into income and build a portfolio career beyond a single job, so you’re more resilient and in control.

✨The Career Pivot Archive

Real-world career pivots, portfolio paths, and practical lessons from some of your favourite Substackers you can apply to your own next move.

I’m Katharine — a future-focused career strategist helping professionals build income options and stay relevant as work evolves.

🙏 I appreciate you being here and supporting this growing archive… and thank you to all the creators who contribute, it’s such a pleasure to learn from them.

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